Natural gas, found in deposits in the earth, is an abundant energy resource. For example, natural gas commonly serves as a fuel for heating, cooking, and power generation, among other things. The process of obtaining natural gas from an earth formation typically includes drilling a well into the formation. Wells that provide natural gas are often remote from locations with a demand for the consumption of the natural gas.
Thus, natural gas is conventionally transported large distances from the wellhead to commercial destinations in pipelines. This transportation presents technological challenges due in part to the large volume occupied by a gas. Because the volume of a gas is so much greater than the volume of a liquid containing the same number of gas molecules, the process of transporting natural gas typically includes chilling and/or pressurizing the natural gas in order to liquefy it. However, this contributes to the final cost of the natural gas.
Further, naturally occurring sources of crude oil used for liquid fuels such as gasoline and middle distillates have been decreasing and supplies are not expected to meet demand in the coming years. Middle distillates typically include heating oil, jet fuel, diesel fuel, and kerosene. Fuels that are liquid under standard atmospheric conditions have the advantage that in addition to their value, they can be transported more easily in a pipeline than natural gas, since they do not require energy, equipment, and expense required for liquefaction.
Thus, for all of the above-described reasons, there has been interest in developing technologies for converting natural gas to more readily transportable liquid fuels, i.e. to fuels that are liquid at standard temperatures and pressures. One method for converting natural gas to liquid fuels involves two sequential chemical transformations. In the first transformation, natural gas or methane, the major chemical component of natural gas, is reacted with oxygen to form syngas, which is a combination of carbon monoxide gas and hydrogen gas. In the second transformation, known as the Fischer-Tropsch process, carbon monoxide is reacted with hydrogen to form organic molecules containing carbon and hydrogen. Those organic molecules containing only carbon and hydrogen are known as hydrocarbons. In addition, other organic molecules containing oxygen in addition to carbon and hydrogen known as oxygenates may be formed during the Fischer-Tropsch process. Hydrocarbons having carbons linked in a straight chain are known as aliphatic hydrocarbons that may include paraffins and/or olefins. Paraffins are particularly desirable as the basis of synthetic diesel fuel.
Typically the Fischer-Tropsch product stream contains hydrocarbons having a range of numbers of carbon atoms, and thus having a range of molecular weights. Thus, the Fischer-Tropsch products produced by conversion of natural gas commonly contain a range of hydrocarbons including gases, liquids and waxes. Depending on the molecular weight product distribution, different Fischer-Tropsch product mixtures are ideally suited to different uses. For example, Fischer-Tropsch product mixtures containing liquids may be processed to yield gasoline, as well as heavier middle distillates. Hydrocarbon waxes may be subjected to an additional processing step for conversion to liquid and/or gaseous hydrocarbons. Thus, in the production of a Fischer-Tropsch product stream for processing to a fuel it is desirable to maximize the production of high value liquid hydrocarbons, such as hydrocarbons with at least 5 carbon atoms per hydrocarbon molecule (C5+ hydrocarbons).
The Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is commonly facilitated by a catalyst. Catalysts desirably have the function of increasing the rate of a reaction without being consumed by the reaction. A feed containing carbon monoxide and hydrogen is typically contacted with a catalyst in a reaction zone that may include one or more reactors.
The composition of a catalyst influences the relative amounts of hydrocarbons obtained from a Fischer-Tropsch catalytic process. Common catalysts for use in the Fischer-Tropsch process contain at least one metal from Groups 8, 9, or 10 of the Periodic Table (in the new IUPAC notation, which is used throughout the present specification).
Cobalt metal is particularly desirable in catalysts used in converting natural gas to heavy hydrocarbons suitable for the production of diesel fuel. Alternatively, iron, nickel, and ruthenium have been used in Fischer-Tropsch catalysts. Nickel catalysts favor termination and are useful for aiding the selective production of methane from syngas. Iron has the advantage of being readily available and relatively inexpensive but the disadvantage of a high water-gas shift activity. Ruthenium has the advantage of high activity but is quite expensive.
Catalysts often further employ a promoter in conjunction with the principal catalytic metal. A promoter typically improves one or more measures of the performance of a catalyst, such as activity, stability, selectivity, reducibility, or regenerability.
Further, in addition to the catalytic metal, a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst often includes a support material. The support is typically a porous material that provides mechanical strength and a high surface area in which the catalytic metal and any promoter(s) may be deposited. Catalyst supports for catalysts used in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of hydrocarbons have typically been refractory oxides (e.g., silica, alumina, titania, zirconia or mixtures thereof).
After a period of time in operation, a catalyst will become deactivated, losing its effectiveness for catalyzing the desired reaction to a degree that makes the process uneconomical at best and inoperative at worst. The more deactivated a particular catalyst is, the less efficient the catalyst is at enhancing the rate of the desired reaction. At this point, the catalyst must either be replaced or regenerated, both of which are expensive and time consuming.
Catalyst systems can become deactivated by any number of mechanisms. For example, water oxidation is a serious problem due to the fact that water is a major by-product of the Fischer-Tropsch reaction. Further, the higher the partial pressure of water, the higher the deactivation rate. This problem can be further exacerbated by the presence of small crystallites of the catalytically active metal. Fischer-Tropsch catalysts are typically composed of small and large crystallites. It is known that the small crystallites are highly active under typical Fischer-Tropsch operating conditions. However, large crystallites are more stable and resistant to water oxidation under typical Fischer-Tropsch operating conditions than the smaller crystallites.
In order to take advantage of the different characteristics between large and small crystallites, catalyst preparations and methods have focused on trying to control the crystallite sizes in the catalyst material. However, controlling the crystal size is expensive and very difficult. In addition, other methods known in the art have focused on periodic regeneration of the catalyst material. However, this approach adds considerable complexity to the overall process and also increases costs. Further, once the catalyst is re-introduced it will still face the same problems.
Hence, there is a great need to identify new catalyst preparation methods that create more stable catalyst compositions that have and maintain high activity or syngas conversion values and/or new Fischer-Tropsch operating methods that result in a more stable Fischer-Tropsch reaction. In addition, methods that can prepare Fischer-Tropsch catalysts that resist at least one of the deactivation phenomena in a simple, cost effective and practical manner.